The Boys and Girls Club of Sierra Blanca is bracing for a forced move from its current location in the former Ruidoso Middle School on Reese Drive.

"We're divesting ourselves of the building," school board Chairman Greg Cory told the club's executive director, Tom Coughlin, at the board's Oct. 6 meeting. "The state is requiring us to do this."

"We knew the time would come," Coughlin replied. "We don't know what we're going to do yet, but we need to do something. We'll figure something out. There's no golden goose."

No date has been set for the club's departure. It shares the former middle school facility with the Region IX Education Cooperative, which will also need to find other quarters.

The building is among obsolete RMSD properties likely to be sold in order to free up resources for other facilities as part of the school district's master plan, which is administered under state oversight.

Coughlin appeared at last week's board meeting to brief RMSD directors on the Boys and Girls Club's numerous projects and programs.

He described an era of astonishing growth that began in 2011 when only a handful of children and teenagers were showing up each day to use club facilities. That figure has grown to 120, he said, and is still rising.

The club provides after-school care, sports and educational activities, snacks, summer meals and a host of other support and outreach services.

Some of the educational programs can pop up on a moment's notice, Coughlin said. A group from the club was taking part in a highway cleanup project when they came across the body of an elk.

"They took it away and they're slowly reassembling the skeleton," he said. "They've determined it was shot. There was a hole in the scapula."

"CSI," quipped Cory.

In other business:

- Superintendent George Bickert reported that with two recent hires, all teaching positions in the district have now been filled.

- Bickert also reported that the district is considering creating an "alternative" setting on the Ruidoso High School campus for special education students whose disabilities create chronic discipline problems in regular classrooms.

- The board learned that Ruidoso High School has been moved down from 147th to 412th on the state priority list for school capital improvement projects, meaning that upgrades at RHS for which the district wants the state to share costs may have to wait longer for approval.